Elaine initially studied oil painting in still life, portraiture and English landscape. Courses in visual research at Hertfordshire College of Art and Design (now Hertfordshire University) let to a Diploma in Combined Art Studies (Highly Commended) in 1981.Various courses in experimental painting at Camden Institute and Camden Art Centre followed and after many years of experimental work in a variety of media, including sculpture and printmaking, with mainly abstract and conceptual ideas, she returned to traditional themes concentrating on oil painting. Colour became her obsession and her influences were Cezanne, Matisse and the Scottish Colourists.

Elaine used traditional methods of oil paintings, occasionally experimenting with mixed media, ie. acrylic, pastel, gouache, watercolour and collage. She travelled regularly, collecting ideas and images,through sketching in a variety of media and photography for reference. She expressed her original emotional response to the subject through vibrant colour and gestural brush marks. The focus on composition and draughtsmanship together with a sensual harmony of colour and tone. Several images often used in one painting, sometimes being greatly simplified and abstracted.

Travels to Scotland, many Mediterranean countries, India and the Caribbean have resulted in dramatic series of land, town and seascapes. An ongoing theme and love is water (reflections, boats, harbours, etc.). The recent series of oil paintings are of the four seasons in woodlands and London paintings mainly of the Southbank.

In l990 Elaine set up her own studio and started teaching painting to small groups. She was approached by Leisure Painter Magazine to write for them on colour. Several articles on colour and the use of photographs for reference were subsequently published over the next few years. Paper Moon Publishers have used Elaine’s landscapes for fine art cards. She regularly exhibits in a number of prestigious galleries in London and further afield and her work is in many private collections.

Elaine still runs a painting studio in Radlett and in 2011 started a series of portraits of children and teenagers, relating to their activities, and is now taking commissions for portraits.